Tuesday, January 30, 2018

WHEN DOES THE HEART PART START?

“I've really learned a lot,” the president said of his first year in office during a lunch with television correspondents ahead of his first State of the Union address. “You know, governing — when you're a businessperson, you don't have to worry about your heart, the heart. You really do what's best for almost purely monetary reasons. You know, you make your money. You competing against people. In many cases, you don't like them, you want to beat, and all that stuff.”

He continued: “So having a business background and a successful business background is great, but oftentimes you do things that you would never do in business because you have to also govern with heart.”

Did it really take him a year to learn that about governing? No, not really, because he gave the same answer to John Dickerson of CBS in late April:

JOHN DICKERSON: What's the difference between negotiating in Washington versus negotiating in business?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I think the big difference is, for what we're doing here, Washington, you really need heart, because you're talking about a lot of people. Whereas business, you don't need so much heart. You want to make a good deal.

So did I miss the moments between the spring and now when Trump governed with heart? He'd clearly learned that heart is necessary for governing at least seven months ago. So where was the heart? Can you name any heart-driven moments in Trump's first year in office? I can't. I'm stumped.